Locals who didn’t catch the screening premiere of TORA, the short film shot in Lake Country and Vernon, now have the opportunity when the film shows at the Creekside Theatre in Lake Country Sunday.
“The film was shot in Lake Country and Vernon and so the Creekside is the perfect venue to showcase the film to the communities who helped make it,” said director/producer Wendy Ord, who with partner Glen Samuel, had to turn away more than 150 people in Kelowna when the film was first shown in January.
“(We) have been inundated with requests for another local screening,” she said.
Ord and Samuel of Mountain Lake Films in Lake Country have spent the last year and a half making their 30-minute “epic” film.
When David Suzuki signed on to play the motorcycle riding oddball neighbour in their script, the filmmakers set to work right away to begin filming the winter scenes.
“It was almost a year to the day that filming began on snowbound Beaver Lake,” said Ord.
Summer scenes were filmed at Kopje Park in Carr’s Landing and a street in Vernon stood in for war-time Vancouver.
More than 100 local cast, crew and businesses were directly involved with the production, from extras to catering to car rentals.
One of the stars in the film is eight-year-old actress Krista Shepard, who will be on hand to help introduce the film on Sunday.
TORA follows Jenna, a jaded city woman who inherits an idyllic lake-side property.
Falling down buildings in the bush and unsettling visions of a little ghost girl make her realize all is not as it appears. Through her new and delightfully odd neighbour (Suzuki), Jenna learns the property was a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War, and the little girl she’s been seeing suffered a mysterious fate while interned there.
“Themes of loss, hope and forgiveness are explored in this epic drama that swings between the beautiful scenery of B.C. and the harsh, cold realities of the 1940s,” said Ord, adding the film is starting to receive invitations to film festivals around the world including Vancouver, Australia and the U.S.
TORA screens Sunday at the Creekside Theatre, 10241 Bottom Wood Lake Rd. (attached to George Elliot Secondary School in Lake Country.) Doors open at 2 p.m. with a behind-the-scenes making of slide show. The film screens from 2:30 to 3 p.m. Reservations are not required and admission is $5 (cash only.) For more information, visit www.torathemovie.com.
